


But a Whimper

by AvecPlaisir



Category: Glee
Genre: Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-30
Updated: 2014-02-03
Packaged: 2018-01-10 13:16:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvecPlaisir/pseuds/AvecPlaisir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you asked a random member of the New Directions what they wanted, they’d probably tell you a solo at regionals. If you asked everyone except Rachel and Finn, they’d probably sound a little wistful. Not to spoil the end of the world for you, or anything, but it looks something like this. In which Will Schuester ruins lives, Mercedes is a babe, and Kurt has a plan. Warning for violence in later chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title of course comes from the last line in T.S. Elliot's "The Hollow Men":

The beginning of the end wasn’t anything unusual.  


Will, as usual, had a stupid plan. This particular plan involved singing to Ms. Pillsbury, or picking songs Ms. Pillsbury might like, or quite possibly seducing Ms. Pillsbury, and being the first to fuck her into the mattress. Kurt wasn’t sure. Kurt wasn’t paying attention, because  


1) _Really?_ Kurt had no idea how much longer Mr. Schuster and Ms. Pillsbury could play tag with their love life without actually ever progressing beyond mutual crush stage, but he was getting tired just watching them. They were together. But there was something. There was always something.  


2) Kurt had heard all that he needed to hear. It was always the same. Competition. Practice for regionals. Whoever wins will be the soloists.  
Right.  


“This is bull crap,” said Santana.“Everyone knows you’re just going to pick Finn and Rachel.”  


“There was that one time that me and Quinn won,” Sam said.  


Mercedes rolled her eyes, “Yeah, ‘cuz they threw the game by being _really offensive_.”  


“No way!” Sam frowned.  


“No, she’s right,” Rachel said. “We threw it on purpose.”  


“And then Schue handed it to the _other_ heterosexual white couple,” Tina finished with venom. “Other _able-bodied_ , heterosexual white couple,” she added, glancing at Artie.  


“Damn straight,” Artie agreed.  


“It’s not unicorn,” Brittany said sadly.  


“Woah, woah, guys!” Mr. Schuster put his hands up. Everyone stopped talking. “Now, I know that some of you aren’t happy with being in the background, but Glee is about the team—not about counting solos!”  


Schue’s speech was interrupted by laughter. Shcue frowned at where Mercedes was muttering in Kurt’s ear. It was doubly rude, because they were both in the front row. Like, _right there_ , wow. “Kurt? Mercedes? Something you want to share with us?”  


“No, not really,” Kurt said breathlessly, and Mercedes seemed to choke on something.  


“No, go ahead,” Schue said, folding his arms over his chest. “I insist.”  


Kurt glanced at Mercedes, who straightened up in her chair with a shrug.  


“I just said it’d be easier to agree with you if I had a solo to count," said Mercedes simply.  


Schue’s face twisted. He gauged the reaction of the rest of the New Directions. Most of them looked more interested and invested in the conversation than normal. Tina was nodding, Mike was giving Mercedes a surreptuous thumbs up, and Santana was actively glaring at Schue. Even Puck was paying attention. Only Blaine, who was sitting near the back, seemed sad—which, quite frankly, didn’t make sense and Schue wasn’t going to worry about it.  


“Is that really how you feel?” he demanded.  


“Kind of,” Mercedes drawled with an eye roll, which Schue had enough experience to know was teenager for _yes, duh_.  


“Listen, guys,” Schue said. “I try to give everyone a chance, but solos boil down to dedication and talent. You want a solo, Mercedes?” And here Schue looked her right in the eye. 

“Win it.”  


With that, Schue turned back to the board. Just for a moment. Just to compose himself.  


“Why do I feel like we’re back at square one?” Tina sighed, too low for Schue to hear, but loud enough for all of the kids to.  


“That’s because we are,” Kurt muttered, and everyone except Schue heard that too.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second chapter tends to come after the first.

“You need to talk to him, Kurt.”

That was the first thing Mercedes said when they got out of Glee club. Kurt had left with Mercedes to go to their senior English class, noting that Blaine was being dragged off somewhere by Tina.

“Do I?” Kurt asked airily, winding his arm through Mercedes’.

 _“Yes,”_ Mercedes said with emphasis. “Didn’t you see the way he kept looking at you?”

Kurt hadn’t really talked to Blaine in a few days—hadn’t even responded to his texts—but just because he was giving his boyfriend the silent treatment didn’t mean that he wasn’t still watching. When Blaine wasn’t looking, that is.

“Of course I did, ‘Cedes.”

“That poor boy doesn’t even know what he did wrong. Heck, _I_ don’t know what he did wrong, Kurt.”

“He didn’t do anything wrong," Kurt murmured, almost to himself. Almost as if he weren't really thinking about what he was saying.

Mercedes raised an eyebrow. “Then why are you giving him the cold shoulder?”

Kurt blinked, then shrugged.

“That’s it? That’s all you got to say?”

“I don’t know what _to_ say, ‘Cedes. I just haven’t been in the mood to talk to him.”

“You can’t just leave the boy hanging like that, Kurt. It's not right."

“What about you?” Kurt retorted, though not with venom. “Sam has been following you around like a lost puppy for at least a week.” Kurt thought about it. “And Shane, for that matter.”

“That’s different,” Mercedes dismissed him. “I actually dumped both of them. If they want to follow me around, that’s on them--” Mercedes stopped suddenly, eyes wide. “You don’t. Oh my god, do you?”

 “Do I what?”

“Want to dump Blaine? _"_

Kurt pursed his lips and considered her. “Truth time? And you can’t tell _anyone,_ ‘Cedes, swear you won’t.”

Mercedes looked offended. “What kind of friend do you think I am?”

“The gossipy kind,” Kurt said drily. “Swear.”

Mercedes bit back a retort, anxious. “I swear, Kurt, just tell me.”

Kurt was satisfied. “Okay, truth time?” He repeated. “Maybe.”

 

***

The next day, Glee Club was the last class of the day. Mr. Schuester was still gung-ho about the competition, and this time Puck was the first to go. Apparently he’d been working on a song already. His performance involved a lot of hip thrusting.

“Thank you Puck,” Mr. Schuster said, when Puck had finished. “But, guys. Let’s keep things PG, alright?”

The bell rang shortly afterwards. Mercedes cleared her throat and jerked her head towards where Blaine was walking out of the door, shoulders slumped. He hadn’t even attempted to sit near Kurt today. He’s just went immediately to the back of the class.

Kurt sighed. “I know. I’m going.”

“But don’t be late,” she warned.

“I won’t.” He kissed Mercedes on the cheek. “See you in an hour.”

Kurt followed Blaine silently to Blaine’s locker, and hung back as Blaine opened his locker, watching. On Kurt’s mental list of pros to dating Blaine Anderson: that ass.

“Hey, cutie,” Kurt said smugly as he came up from behind his boyfriend, winding his arms around Blaine’s absurdly small waist. It didn’t escape his notice that Blaine’s first reaction was to flinch, and not for the first time Kurt wondered if Blaine’s experience at McKinley had been as harassment free as it seemed.

  
Kurt was beginning to get angry, so instead of focusing on those unpleasant thoughts, he focused on pressing his lips to the side of Blaine’s neck.

 _“Kurt,”_ Blaine breathed, relaxing into his touch, and Blaine said Kurt’s name the way he always did—imbued with too many emotions. After all of this time, Kurt could pick out most of them. There was always a sense of wonder and joy. Now, intertwined with that was a tone of hurt, and really Kurt had only himself to blame for that. But, most prevalent was the tone of relief.

“How are you?” Kurt murmured, peppering kisses along Blaine’s jaw line.

“How are _you_?” Blaine asked, twisting in Kurt’s arms to stare at him with large earnest eyes. Suddenly Blaine seemed to remember where they were. “Should we be doing this here?”

Kurt pressed his lips together for a moment. On the one hand, now that Karofsky was gone and his Glee friends on the football team had his back, Kurt’s day to day experience was, like, 1000% better than it had been in his freshman, sophomore and even junior years. On the other hand, there were still the hockey jocks to worry about, and Kurt knew that Blaine wasn’t as comfortable with casual bullying as he was. After all, the last time Blaine had gone to a homophobic school environment, he’d ended up in the hospital.

“Probably not,” Kurt admitted, taking a significant step back. He really, really hated that he had to do so.

Blaine was still looking at him earnestly. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” Kurt said honestly.

“Why weren’t you talking to me?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I’m talking to you now.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Are you wearing lipstick?” Kurt asked.

Blaine blushed. “It’s Tina’s.”

Kurt stared. “Is that supposed to be an explanation?”

Blaine did that duck-head-and-smile-shyly thing he does when he was happy but sad but happy. “She bought some new shades to go with a dress and wanted to see what they look like.”

“Why didn’t she try them on herself?”

“She did. She wanted to test more than one at a time.”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “Come on. Finish packing your stuff then let’s go make out in my car before I have to go help Mercedes.”

Blaine’s eyes widened. “We can’t yet. I have to show Tina what they look like first.”

“She didn’t see when she put it on?”

“She says this brand changes color slightly after about half an hour, so you can’t tell ‘till then.”

Kurt stopped himself from saying something really bitchy. Blaine, after all, was still looking at him with a mixture of hope and fear.

“Alright,” Kurt said gently, taking his hand. “Let’s go find Tina.”

***

“Are you wearing lipstick?” Mercedes asked later, when Kurt showed up at the auditorium.

“What? Oh—“ Kurt wiped his mouth with his hands distractedly, “No. Blaine was.”

“Blaine was wearing lipstick?”

“Never mind that,” Kurt said, setting down his bag. “Have you chosen a song yet?”

“No. I mean—I have a few options, but I was hoping you’d help me pick one. I just need it to be perfect.”

“Of course. Lay them on me.”

Mercedes told Kurt all of the songs she was considering and they narrowed the list down to three, eliminating other choices based on appropriateness and what had not gone over well with Mr. Schuster in the past. Mercedes then sang all choices, and Kurt helped her pick the one she would sing on Thursday.

“Now we practice,” Mercedes said. “I am not going to lose to Rachel Berry because of ‘laziness’.”

“Which is a ridiculous way to discount you,” Kurt said. “Rachel is literally the only one in the Glee club who practices that much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. A lot of angry feels about the double standards in Glee Club. Looking at you, Mr. Scheuster.
> 
> 2\. Is the pacing weird? Yes. No. It'll probs get weirder.

**Author's Note:**

> TBC


End file.
